Premiership agrees broadcast deal with ITV

Sarah Rendell

Live matches and highlights from the English top flight will be shown on ITV4

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Premiership agrees broadcast deal with ITV

Premiership Rugby has announced a broadcast deal with ITV that will run until the end of the 2023-24 season.

The channel will show live Gallagher Premiership matches, including the final, as well as a highlights show on ITV4. This marks a return of the English top flight to free-to-air TV after the previous deal with Channel 5 ended last season.

The live coverage begins on 30 January with Sale Sharks v Leicester Tigers. The highlights programme will begin that evening and will be presented by David Flatman and Topsy Ojo.

This season four matches will be broadcast live in addition to the final, and in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 campaigns there will be seven games shown live.

BT Sport will continue their coverage of the league but news of the competition’s return of terrestrial TV is “the perfect way to kick off 2022”, according to new Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor.

“It’s great news for the league, our clubs, the supporters and the profile of rugby in England,” he said. “Our ambition is to grow the game and make Gallagher Premiership Rugby available to as many people as possible.”

ITV’s director of sport Niall Sloane said: “We are delighted to announce this deal to bring regular free-to-air coverage of top-level club rugby to viewers across ITV’s platforms. We look forward to showcasing the action and the stories from this elite league over the coming years.”

The Premiership final, won last year by Harlequins, will take place on 18 June at Twickenham and Massie-Taylor wants the event to be a staple of the calendar.

“We want to make the Gallagher Premiership Rugby final 2022 the most-watched in our history,” he added. “We believe we can achieve that with the match screened on both ITV4 and BT Sport. A phenomenal proposition for English club rugby’s showpiece occasion.”

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